Melissa and Nathan’s big day is fab: a wonderful autumn wedding full of colour and fun. They celebrated at Wasing Park (Berkshire) – instantly recognisable for its Victorian summerhouse and that amazing mural. They both look fantastic: Melissa’s elegant bridal style is just fabulous. Her dress was the very first one she tried on, 16 months before the wedding, and she told me she loved wearing it on the day.

You can read Melissa and Nathan’s English Wedding Blog interview at the end of today’s real wedding feature, and see a list of their wedding suppliers.

Melissa shares some fantastic advice. I love this one: “Make decisions quickly – there is so much choice out there you could shop around forever, if you like something don’t keep looking just go with it!”

Watch out for the baby’s reaction to the singing policemen… 😉 See more...

What an amazing week it’s been! We’ve featured some of the loveliest real weddings I’ve seen all year, had some interesting chats on Facebook, indulged in stunning styled shoots and now, to end the week on a high I’d like to introduce someone I believe you’ll have seen already on the English Wedding Blog: lovely Arusha, aka Arusha’s Images Photography.

Contact & Bookings: Arusha’s Images Photography

Arusha is joining my little team of handpicked sponsors and will be sharing her real weddings, styled shoots and more on the English Wedding Blog over the next few months. Her images are gorgeous: she combines reportage and fine art photography and shoots weddings in the Lake District, throughout Cumbria and the north west- and further afield too!

“I am a romantic at heart, and see my work as being a witness to love, and recording that. I love being able to photograph each of my couple’s unique wedding days in my relaxed and natural style.”See more...

It’s been years since I was at Styal Lodge – I remember visiting when the English Wedding Blog was a baby (we’re 6 years old now! how time flies!) – and Styal stole my heart as a luxurious, blank canvas wedding venue. It’s kind of amazing to be showing you a stunning wedding from Styal Lodge today, courtesy of my lovely friend Jamie at Vickerstaff Photography.

The gorgeous couple who are English Wedding Blog’s favourite bride and groom today are Laura & Jon. They look amazing; they’ve shared a fabulous story of their day which you can read after all the images today. Laura told me they spent more on “small details which made a big impact. We hired our name in lights (MR & MRS Rothwell) from the Word is love which everyone commented on. Some people asked us where we were going to put the lights after the wedding. We were gutted we had to give them back!

Earlier this month we featured gorgeous couple Laura & Chris’s wedding from Shottle Hall, in Derbyshire. I fell in love with the wedding breakfast rooms and the grounds of the place as soon as I saw their images – and it’s taken me a few weeks to find out more to tell you about one of Derbyshire’s premier wedding venues. Images are all by lovely Jon Cripwell Photography.

Shottle Hall is a stately home near Belper, set in its own enchanting gardens and is available as an exclusive use wedding venue. It’s licensed for ceremonies so you can wake up, get married, celebrate and sleep all under one fabulous roof. What I love most about this place is it’s flexible: Laura told me Shottle Hall didn’t impose restrictions on catering, for example, so they served mini cupcakes instead of canapés before the wedding breakfast – which is awesome.

Seeing all of your table plans fascinates me: I’ve already decided I’d be on the Prodigy table for this one… although the choice is fantastic! Nonetheless today’s is a celebration where music really mattered, and it sounds as though the band playing at Stacey and Roger’s festival wedding outshone any of the famous names on the table plan! Today’s is a fab theme, and a gorgeous autumn wedding: I hope you love it as much as I do!

“Carol blended in with the wedding guests and captured fantastic photos of them all enjoying the day. Although the posed and group shots are beautiful and just what we wanted, some of our favourites are those where people are blissfully unaware of her presence! She captured so many magical moments that we missed throughout the day.”

“We found the vinyl templates online and made everything else ourselves. It took a bit of time but the end results were definitely worth it as our guests commented that they’d not seen anything like it before!” See more...

In the English Wedding Book (do you have your copy? Download it for FREE!) I mentioned that the trend for woodland and boho weddings was beginning to evolve into something more. I adore a woodland wedding; I’m a country girl through and through. The idea of disappearing into nature for a romantic celebration is magic to my ears – and I stumbled across a very different little wedding venue which could appeal to other country lovers…

The Cowshed at Freathy Farmhouse is as rustic as you can imagine; a real cowshed, and something of a tardis, albeit an insanely pretty one in today’s shoot. The outside is a simple farm building; the inside has been turned into a gorgeous, floral, cosy and welcoming space for brides and grooms.

I love this place; Broadoaks is one of my favourite local wedding venues (how lucky am I to live so close to the Lakes?!) and the couple featured today are fabulous and gorgeous and romantic. This is one of those wedding films which captures the atmosphere of the day and will have you smiling along – with me – possibly with a little tear in your eye. LOVE this!

Time for a little Pinterest, I think… as today’s Lake District wedding is so full of beautiful, colourful, gorgeous details and flowers I hardly know where to begin. I adore this day: the venue is one I love (see my review from last year), the bride and groom are stunning, and oh, the flowers… just perfect.

“The Wild Boar has its own very distinctive décor and did not need much help to create a rustic, vintage vibe. The Wild Boar is full of character with low ceiling beams and roaring log fires, so we managed to achieve the relaxed, intimate atmosphere that we wanted quite easily.”

“About 1 week before the wedding I emailed every supplier who was attending the wedding to ensure they had the correct date and there were no problems etc. This relaxed me completely and prevented any last minute complications!”

Not everyone dreams of being a princess. I never have; and if I’m honest the classic bridal style isn’t for me. I love dresses which are different, creative, and which make a real impression. A dress has to have ‘wow’ as well as being beautiful. And in an ideal world, a dress has to have a story behind it. Enter the awesomeLegend Bridal Designs along with an impressive cast of north west wedding suppliers for today’s alternative styled shoot…

I’m a little obsessed with Game of Thrones. I was excited to hear that the girls at Legend Bridal Designs have recently created custom wedding gowns for brides who love the series and found the inspiration for their day there. Legend are bespoke dressmakers with a very different kind of bridal shop – their dresses are out of this world. I was over the moon to see this magical, unique bridal shoot featuring their gorgeous designs. Images are by lovely Tiree Dawson Photography.

I’ve been busy recommending photographers I love to my friends who are getting married this summer – and everywhere I see couples are booking wedding photographers even for their weddings in 2017… I guess it’s that time of year. Which is perfect, because I like to think of myself as a matchmaker: I see a LOT of wedding photography and I want to help you hook up with amazing photographers for your wedding. Which brings me to lovely Liam Smith Photography…

Contact & Bookings: Liam Smith Photography

Liam Smith Photography has been on my radar since the early days of the English Wedding Blog. Liam combines fine art photography with a beautiful narrative, capturing your day in a sensitive and unique style. I think he’s pretty awesome. I’m delighted to say Liam has rejoined the English Wedding Blog as our latest sponsor and will be sharing plenty of gorgeous real weddings as well as expert advice with all of us over the next few months. Liam – welcome. See more...

It’ll be spring very soon my lovelies… and then summer again, and we’ll be celebrating the gorgeous sunny days of weddings which make this little wedding blog’s heart sing! By the magic of the internet I have a beautiful June wedding to transport you right into summer this morning: gorgeous bride and groom Jo & Sam share their day…

Contact & Bookings: Fiona Kelly Photography

“The decoration was all low key, we hung lanterns in the marquee along with wooden hearts but we wanted to keep the decoration to a minimum. Elvey Farm has its own florist, a wonderful lady called Lesley Masters. I gave Lesley some rough ideas and asked for everything to appear natural like it had just been picked from the garden and she came up with the beautiful creations.”

“I was delighted with the photography from our wedding. Fiona managed to capture the day perfectly and really reflected the country feel we tried to create. The candid photos of family and friends laughing during the speeches were wonderful.” See more...

May 25th, 2020

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The English Wedding Blog is all about creativity: my dream is to curate an online space for couples to get inspired by real weddings, shoots and the latest in wedding design - with a real focus on English and UK weddings and suppliers.

I'm also known for writing calligraphy - for my work with Kirstie Allsopp and because I've worked with hundreds of brides and grooms. Beautiful writing is my passion and I'm happiest with a pen in my hand and ink on my face!

I live on the edge of the English Lake District, a couple of minutes from the seaside. I've lived in France and Italy, I ride a Vespa, I'm a cat person and I love dirty guitar bands, walking in the mountains, and my beach.